More US troops are in LA than in Iraq and Syria
There are now more US troops deployed to Los Angeles than in Iraq and Syria combined, ABC News reports.
There are 4,800 activated national guard and marine personnel in LA, compared to the 2,500 troops in Iraq and 1,500 in Syria.
Los Angeles mayor Karen Bass also just highlighted this during her press conference. She said:
There are reports that if all the military that have been designated to be deployed, if you add them all up it’s more military than are serving today in Iraq.
And the money that is being spent – $134m – all of our cities could use that money.
Key events
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LA curfew will go on ‘as long as needed’, says mayor Bass
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‘January 6 was an insurrection, not what is happening here’: LA mayor calls out Trump’s ‘double standard’
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More US troops are in LA than in Iraq and Syria
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‘I want to speak to the president,’ says LA mayor
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‘Please remember you are dealing with Americans’: mayor and former marine’s plea to marines deployed to LA
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Deploying federalized troops to LA was ‘drastic, chaotic and completely unnecessary’, says mayor
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Unrest in LA was ‘provoked by the White House’, says LA mayor
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LA mayor Karen Bass to hold news conference
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Musk called Trump before posting ‘regret’ message on X – NYT
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White House declines to weigh in on Noem’s request to have military arrest LA protesters
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Trump reviewing China trade deal details, White House says
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Leavitt says 330 illegal immigrants arrested in connection with LA protests
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Trump appreciates Musk apology, White House says
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More than 200 arrested for failure to disperse after curfew, says LAPD
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White House press briefing
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‘There is no sanctuary’ from federal immigration laws in California, US attorney says
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Federal charges filed against two men accused of throwing molotov cocktails at police in LA
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Chuck Schumer says he’s ‘proud’ of Gavin Newsom for ‘refusing to be intimidated by Trump’
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Marines on LA streets ‘soon’, can detain but not arrest people
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Summary of the day so far
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Pam Bondi says Trump administration ‘not scared to go further’ in Los Angeles
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‘We have this under control’: NYC doesn’t need national guard’s help with protests, says NYPD
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Texas governor orders national guard to deploy for protests in San Antonio
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Trump again calls on Fed to lower rates by ‘one full point’, calling inflation figures ‘great’
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Trump to attend Les Misérables at Kennedy Center tonight
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Musk says he regrets some of his posts about Trump
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‘I have no hard feelings’: Trump doesn’t rule out reconciliation with Musk – New York Post
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Trump takes early-morning dig at Newsom
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Texas govenor announces deployment of National Guard
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Trump ‘going after families and children’ says LA mayor
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‘Mass arrests’ after curfew issued for city’s downtown area
“If you drive a few blocks out of downtown, you don’t know that anything is happening in the city at all,” Bass says, again countering the image being painted by the Trump administration that the whole of Los Angeles is in a state of chaos.
LA curfew will go on ‘as long as needed’, says mayor Bass
“Curfews will go on as long as they are needed,” says Bass.
It is interdependent on what happens on the federal side, she adds. “If there are raids, if there are soldiers marching up and down our streets, I would imagine the curfew would continue.”
She adds that the number of arrests last night was “relatively minor” and she hopes for none tonight. “I would hope Angelenos got the message that we are serious,” she says.
‘January 6 was an insurrection, not what is happening here’: LA mayor calls out Trump’s ‘double standard’
Asked if there’s a double standard between the Trump administration’s response to peaceful protests in LA and his pardoning of January 6 rioters, Bass says:
Well I think you just illustrated the double standard.
She goes on:
And given that I was there on January 6 and saw an insurrection take place, the idea that this – what is happening here – is an insurrection is just false.
And I think it is deliberately false, I don’t think they’re confused.
More US troops are in LA than in Iraq and Syria
There are now more US troops deployed to Los Angeles than in Iraq and Syria combined, ABC News reports.
There are 4,800 activated national guard and marine personnel in LA, compared to the 2,500 troops in Iraq and 1,500 in Syria.
Los Angeles mayor Karen Bass also just highlighted this during her press conference. She said:
There are reports that if all the military that have been designated to be deployed, if you add them all up it’s more military than are serving today in Iraq.
And the money that is being spent – $134m – all of our cities could use that money.
Bass says the unrest is “isolated to several streets” of downtown LA, taking aim at the Trump administration’s “lie” that the whole city is in chaos.
Bass highlights that, despite the Trump administration’s touting of the number of arrests made during the unrest, most of those arrests have been for “failure to disperse” and curfew violation – and not for looting or vandalism, she says.
‘I want to speak to the president,’ says LA mayor
Bass says that she wants to speak with Donald Trump following days of anti-Ice protests in Los Angeles and the deployment of national guard troops and marines.
I want to speak to the president, and I want him to understand the significance of what is happening here.
Yesterday, Bass said she was going to “put out a call” to the president, but had not spoken to him yet.
She says that she has a “call in the next few minutes”, not with Trump, “but to get that call set up”.
‘Please remember you are dealing with Americans’: mayor and former marine’s plea to marines deployed to LA
Lauren Gambino
Arturo Flores, the mayor of Huntington Park and a combat veteran who served in Iraq and Afghanistan as a marine, appealed directly to his active duty “brothers” deployed to Los Angeles:
These are Americans.
Whether they have a document or they don’t, you’re dealing with Americans.
So please remember that if you’re ever put in a situation or asked to do something, remember, you are dealing with Americans.
On Monday, federal immigration agents raided a Home Depot in Huntington Park, a predominantly Hispanic city south of LA. Several day laborers were detained and residents have remained on edge, fearful of attending work, school and graduation celebrations.
Flores goes on:
When we lifted our hands and we swore the oath to defend the Constitution and to defend this country, that oath was to the American people.
It was not to a dictator, it was not to a tyrant, it was not the president. It was to the American people.
Cynthia Gonzalez, vice-mayor for the city of Cudahy, addresses Americans whom the Trump administration has made “feel like their American dream hasn’t happened because of us”.
“Our community has been the scapegoat for this administration,” she says. If anything, her neighbors, documented or undocumented, helped her achieve the American Dream, she says.
If you should have anger, it should be for the gutting of Medicaid. It should be for the gutting of your Social Security. And it should be for corporate greed.
They’re using our brown bodies to avoid the conversation that this administration is a failure.
Jeannette Sanchez-Palacios, mayor of the city of Ventura, says she is “outraged and heartbroken by Ice activities targeting of immigrant families in our area”.
She calls the raids “inhumane” and “an affront to the values we uphold throughout the state of California”.
She highlights immigrant labor that sustains agriculture in the region. “Every American who relies on the labor of these individuals will be affected,” she says.
She notes that these individuals made up much of the “essential” workforce who kept the state running during the Covid pandemic.
“These people are also human, at the basic level,” she says.
“We condemn the separation of immigrant families. No-one deserves to live in fear simply for seeking a better life for themselves or for there loved ones,” she says.
“We call on our fellow leaders to centre humanity at every decision they make,” she says.
Deploying federalized troops to LA was ‘drastic, chaotic and completely unnecessary’, says mayor
“When you raid Home Depot and workplaces, when you tear parents and children apart, and when you run armored caravans through our streets – you’re not trying to keep anyone safe, you’re trying to cause fear and panic,” says Bass.
Deploying federalized troops on the heels of the immigration raids, was a “drastic and chaotic escalation and completely unnecessary”, she says.
Unrest in LA was ‘provoked by the White House’, says LA mayor
The cause of the problems in the city of Los Angeles started on Friday with Ice immigration raids, says Bass.
“This was provoked by the White House,” she says, positing that “maybe we are part of a national experiment to determine how far the federal government can go in reaching in and taking power from a local governor, local jurisdiction and leaving our residents in fear.”
She is joined by more than 30 mayors from across the region. “All of us represent cities in this region where immigrants are key. And if in some cases, not the majority of the population,” Bass says.
She accuses the Trump administration of creating “fear and panic” by raiding workplaces and going after “mothers and fathers, restaurant workers, seamstress, home care workers, everyday Angelenos trying to make a living”.
“The individuals that are here with me today are all leaders in their area and we all stand in support and solidarity and call for the raids to end,” Bass says.
LA mayor Karen Bass to hold news conference
Los Angeles mayor Karen Bass is about to hold a press conference after a 10-hour curfew was imposed for parts of downtown LA last night. I’ll bring you all the key lines here.
Leavitt says “of course” peaceful protests would be allowed to go ahead on Saturday for the military parade.
“Of course the president supports peaceful protests. What a stupid question,” she says.
Musk called Trump before posting ‘regret’ message on X – NYT
Donald Trump received a phone call from Elon Musk late on Monday before the billionaire expressed regret over some of the posts he made on social media last week, according to the New York Times (paywall), citing three people briefed on the call.
White House declines to weigh in on Noem’s request to have military arrest LA protesters
Leavitt dodges a question asking what the president makes of homeland security secretary Kristi Noem’s memo to the Pentagon asking it to direct members of the military to arrest or detain “lawbreakers” inside the United States.
Pressed to comment on the fact that the military is not authorized to arrest people unless the president invoked the Insurrection Act, Leavitt says “the president understands the legal authority that he invoked [in federalizing California’s national guard]”.
Leavitt says California governor Gavin Newsom and LA mayor Karen Bass “need to actually do more”.
Referring to Newsom’s address last night and hinting at “his future political ambitions”, Leavitt says “he spoke a lot of words, we haven’t seen action”.
Trump reviewing China trade deal details, White House says
Donald Trump is reviewing the details of the China trade deal with his team, Leavitt says, adding that the president likes what he has learned about it so far.
Leavitt says the administration agreed to comply with the terms of the Geneva agreement it reached last month with officials from Beijing.
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